Archives for January 2009

Tobias Meyer, Sotheby's head of contemporary artA video recently posted on Sotheby's website, Contemporary Art Market: A Candid Look from the Inside, features a cast of five---the auction house's contemporary art team---looking chastened as they candidly discuss the disastrous November sales but try to calm market jitters by assuring sellers that "despite a worsening economic … [Read more...] about Auctioneers’ Nightmare: Sotheby’s Combined November/December Sales Down 54% From Previous Year’s

I know this blog has got to stop being "all National Academy, all the time." But first, I feel compelled to relay this timely job posting:Date posted: 12/18/2008Application deadline: 1/15/2009 The National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts seeks a development assistant to join the National Academy's development team.Development team? I thought director Carmine Branagan had … [Read more...] about Help Wanted (and desperately needed) at National Academy: Development Assistant

Graham W.J. Beal, director, Detroit Institute of ArtsJim Zarroli, a business and economics reporter for National Public Radio (he's their Madoff man), did a segment today on museums' financial difficulties, with an emphasis on the National Academy situation. You can both listen to the audio and read the summary text for "Museums Exhibit Signs Of Economic Distress," here.The … [Read more...] about NPR’s Report on the National Academy Sales

The National AcademyI've been getting many thoughtful responses to my revelations about the sales of art by the National Academy, the subsequent fallout, and my analysis of lessons to be learned from this sorry episode.Here are four reactions from CultureGrrl readers:Michael Botwinick, director of the Hudson River Museum, writes: You have broken an incredibly important story. … [Read more...] about BlogBacks: Readers Speak Out on National Academy Deaccessions

And now, after a whole month of National Academy deaccessions, LA MOCA rescue plans, and reckless New Year's frivolity...we finally return to our regular programming:You may remember that a couple of weeks ago, when we perused the Getty Trust's 2008 financials, we discovered that, unlike the statements for prior years, this year's account omitted both the amount of the deficit … [Read more...] about Budget Fudgit: Being the Getty Means Never Having to Say You Ran a Deficit

Laura Iris Blau, "The Female Eunuch"Feeling growing revulsion against the excesses associated with the economic bubble that has burst, some collectors are looking at the work of emerging artists in a new way---not as a speculative opportunity for making a killing by getting in early on the next new thing, but as a way to acquire affordable works of quality, for rewards that are … [Read more...] about Laura Iris Blau: An Emerging Artist I’ve Known from (literally) Day One

Here's my more-naughty-than-nice list of what some artworld boldface names have vowed to do in the New Year. Few have fulfilled their 2008 Resolutions, but hope springs eternal.Tom Campbell: As the Met's new director, I will institute casual Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, but I will designate Fridays as "Dress Like Philippe Day." I will also aspire to implement … [Read more...] about Artworld Luminaries’ 2009 Resolutions